MOHALI: Following his side’s disappointing 9-run loss against Mumbai Indians (MI) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, Punjab Kings (PBKS) skipper Sam Curran said that it was an ‘unfortunate’ defeat on Thursday.
While speaking at the post-match press conference, Curran showered praise on Ashutosh Sharma after he scored 61 runs and said that it was an “incredible knock” from the 25-year-old.
The stand-in Punjab Kings skipper said that they were disheartened to concede a defeat in a close game. He added that the squad believes in themselves and can turn around their form in the upcoming days.
“Another close one, I think this team likes a close one, but unfortunately another loss. Another incredible knock from the young guy (on Ashutosh), but another close loss. It’s disheartening to lose close games, but there are a lot of positives on this team. We still have belief in us, we believe we can turn this around, the sun will come up tomorrow and we will hopefully get on a winning run”, Curran said.
Recapping the match, Punjab Kings sent Mumbai Indians to bat first. Following that, a fiery knock from Suryakumar (78) propelled MI to 192/7. Apart from SKY, Rohit Sharma (36) and Tilak Varma (34) played a pivotal role in the inning and helped MI add valuable runs to the scoreboard.
Meanwhile, Harshal Patel led the Punjab Kings bowling attack after he bagged three wickets. Skipper Sam Curran took two wickets, on the other hand.
During the run chase, Ashutosh (61) and Shashank Singh (41) were the standout batters for the hosts and tried to take Punjab closer to the target. However, Gerald Coetzee and Jasprit Bumrah’s three wicket haul helped MI successfully defend their target.
Bumrah was named the ‘Player of the Match’ after he picked up three wickets and gave up 21 runs in his four-over spell. (ANI)